July 7, 2006

I May Have Figured This Out…

Why North Korea willfully pissed off the whole world by launching a rocket, that is. It’s a wrinkle on the “domestic consumption” theory: The regime is in desperate shape and is about to make some kind of face-losing concession, such as asking for food aid or agreeing to give up some weapon or activity. Kim Jong Il needed a garish display of belligerence to save face — to tell his people that any aid is really an extortion payment, or...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Kremlinology/WMD
July 7, 2006

On ‘Strategic Disengagement’

I don’t really know, of course, but what a discussion Richardson has started with one of this blog’s best-written and researched posts (pursued by James, with characteristic excellence, here). The topic: why North Korea would do something so counterproductive to its extortionate, mendacious, highly successful diplomacy as this ballistic tantrum. Richardson believes the main motive to be an intent to isolate itself from the world. He calls this Strategic Disengagement. I disagree with Richardson’s ultimate conclusion, that Kim Jong Il...
Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology/WMD
July 7, 2006

Life Imitates ‘Team America,’ Part 2

Yesterday, I noted how the reality of the United Nations had upstaged the intentional farce of “Team America: World Police,” a movie that proved too prescient for its shelf life. Today, President Bush counsels patience as Russia and China do their “Hans Brix” impression and Republicans in Congress express their frustration. “We do know there’s a lot of concentration camps. We do know the people are starving,” [Bush] said. “But what we don’t know is his intentions. And so I...
Categories "United" Nations/Diplomacy/WMD
July 7, 2006

The Wrong Kind of Attention

[Update: You MUST read this IHT op-ed by Grace Kang and David Scheffer, on raising the issue of prosecuting Kim Jong Il for crimes against humanity. I tend to agree that this would go nowhere in the U.N., which (and this is me talking now) would be a perfect demonstration of the institution’s worthless as a global law-giver. Thanks to a commenter.] Two and a half years ago, I left the Army and started a blog called OneFreeKorea to bring...
Categories Activism/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
July 6, 2006

T-Dong Aimed at Hawaii?

No link yet, but it’s all over American radio and TV media now. This is the repored conclusion of U.S. military experts, who concluded it based on the missile’s short trajectory. This apparently comes from the Sankei Shimbun, so exercise healthy skepticism. The real good news here: there is much, much more media interest in the general depravity of the regime in North Korea. We’ll end up with better policy if all of this publicity drives it out of the...
Categories WMD
July 6, 2006

Statement from Rep. Henry Hyde

This just in. Many thanks to the reader who forwarded this. Today, North Korea acknowledged that it fired seven missiles, including an intercontinental missile, the Taepodong 2, as a “routine military exercise.” The long range missile, which is designed to have the capability to reach the United States, failed within a minute of its launch and therefore represents no immediate threat to the United States. However, the successful short range missile firings constitute a direct threat to our troops in...
Categories "United" Nations/Washington Views/WMD
July 6, 2006

At the U.N., Life Imitates ‘Team America’

Kim Jong Il: Hans Brix? Oh no! Oh, herro. Great to see you again, Hans! Hans Blix: Mr. Il, I was supposed to be allowed to inspect your palace today, but your guards won’t let me enter certain areas. Kim Jong Il: Hans, Hans, Hans! We’ve been frew this a dozen times. I don’t have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans? Hans Blix: Then let me look around, so I can ease the UN’s collective mind. I’m sorry, but...
Categories "United" Nations/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Unintended Humor/WMD/WTF?
July 6, 2006

National Review on North Korea

I think they get it mostly right, particularly their sober opposition to Newt Gingrich’s call for bombing them (published in NRO), which predated a similar call by William Perry. What this means is that the U.S. is probably stuck with Kim for a while to come. Our policy should accordingly be one of containing Kim’s regime and undermining its power. Perhaps the greatest danger is that North Korea will transfer its missile technology to other regimes that would use it...
Categories Diplomacy/WMD
July 6, 2006

Get Rid of the Dane

In many ways, Rudyard Kipling was a product of the backward times in which he lived, but what a timeless thing North Korea’s idea of diplomacy is: Dane Geld It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation To call upon a neighbour and to say: — “We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight, Unless you pay us cash to go away.” And that is called asking for Dane-geld, And the people who ask it...
Categories Diplomacy/Miscellaneous/Uncategorized
July 5, 2006

Hey! Over Here!

I suspect South Korea will be in political paralysis and disarray for at least several days with respect to the future of the Sunshine Policy. Clearly, it’s much harder to justify changing North Korea though unconditional aid than it was last week. Whether Roh still clings to his demand to keep Kaesong in the FTA will be a crucial test. After billions in aid, South Korea still lacked the influence to get back its kidnapped citizens, reduce tensions along the...
Categories Appeasement/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea
July 5, 2006

Biting the Hand ….

I wouldn’t call this a particularly bright move at a time when the U.N. Security Council is in emergency session: [F]ood and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on. In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea...
Categories China & Korea
July 4, 2006

Now What?

North Korea’s missile test opens up new options for the United States. Here is a list of them. [Scroll down for updates.] It too easy to say, as many will in the coming days, that there is little that the United States and other nations can do to North Korea diplomatically or economically now that it has done the unthinkably stupid and launched its (taepo)dong and (count ’em!) five smaller missiles [Update: make that six]. Let me express my respectful...
Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/Geopolitics/NK Economics/U.S. Law/WMD
July 4, 2006

Photoshopped?

Says commenter “olivianewtinseoul:” You photoshopped Pyongyang black in your banner. Put it back to how ti is in that silly ass KOB. The original is here, courtesy of the left-of-center Federation of American Scientists, and as linked by Slate’s Christopher Hitchens in his excellent article, “Worse than 1984: North Korea, Slave State.” The original was taken by NASA on April 15, 2001, using low light level imaging. If you shop around, you will find other photographs taken on different days...
Categories WTF?
July 2, 2006

Decisions, Decisions: Impose an Arms Embargo on North Korea

“At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death. ““ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, May 2, 2006 This week, the World Food Program is reporting what ought to surprise no one — that after the North Korean government forced it to cut back its feeding operations from one that fed 6.5 million people to one that feeds just 1.2 million — millions are going hungry as a result. We’ve...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Military
June 30, 2006

Collaborators, You Say?

I’m certainly no expert on those who collaborated to enslave their brothers under fascist tyranny six decades ago. Some may have done genuinely awful things; others may have been “mere” profiteers. Some may have acted more voluntarily than others. The passage of six decades certainly complicates such questions. That’s why there are statutes of limitations. On the other hand, I can’t help but note the absence of any official list with more contemporary application, so here’s my effort at a...
Categories Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column